Bellin Health, one of the hospitals attending to Covid-19 patients during a surge in cases, is pictured in Green Bay, Wisconsin October 20, 2020. — Reuters: UW Health University Hospital in Madison, Wisconsin has been rushing to convert available space into units for Covid-19 patients, as the state’s medical facilities struggle to keep pace with a surge in new infections.
Wisconsin, a hotly contested battleground in next week’s presidential election, is one of 36 states where coronavirus hospitalizations are rising by at least 10 per cent compared to the previous week, according to a Reuters analysis. The largest increase in US hospitalisations was in Texas, which reported almost 1,000 new Covid-19 hospitalisations on Tuesday, up 20 per cent from a week ago.
In Wisconsin, which broke one-day state records for cases and deaths on Tuesday, state officials asked residents to quarantine voluntarily when possible, wear masks and cancel social gatherings with more than five people. Rhode Island is struggling to cope with a spike in cases that has overwhelmed the contact tracing system, Raimondo said as she announced the state was looking to hire 100 case navigators to boost its network.